I. Field of the Invention
1. Using the impact of the wind against an impeller wheel to provide mechanical or electric power.
II. Description of the Prior Art
1. There are two broad classes in the prior art.
One class are those in which the impeller revolves at right angle to the direction of the wind and has vanes set at an angle on the impeller wheel that provides the wheel turning impulse by the reaction provided by the blades in deflecting the on-coming wind. Hundreds of thousands of this type have been made but very few developed more than one horsepower, in fact a 5 horse power wind motor of this type is called a large wind motor.
2. The other class are those that revolve in the same direction as the on-coming wind and resemble paddle wheels or certain types of water wheels, there are several types of these; one type has one half of the impeller vanes guarded from the action of the wind, for otherwise they will not revolve since the pressure on the two halves will balance; another type of this class uses folding vanes that close on themselves when they come into the counter pressure, also there is the screw vane type used extensively on top of buildings as ventilator motors, and also the "S-rotor" type wind motor which powered an ocean-going ship on a round trip from Europe to America.